Undeveloped regions are delivered completely empty of objects and ready to be built and shaped to your liking. Themed regions contain a ready-made build which has been optimized to get you started on your new land in minutes, and which can be futher modified to your liking. All themes are available as Full Regions, and most as Homestead Regions. Due to the amount of land capacity they use, themed regions are not available as Openspace Regions.

The table below explains the different types of Private Regions available for purchase in the Second Life® virtual world.

Full Regions

Homestead Regions

Openspace Regions

Description

The premier region product which offers the highest performance.

Lower performance than a Full Region and intended for low-density rentals, quiet residential, or light commercial use. Available only to Residents who own at least one Full Region.

Intended for very low-impact scenic use such as ocean, forest, or countryside. Available only to Residents who own at least one Full Region.

Purchasing from the land store

Tip: Read the introduction explaining the difference between developed land and undeveloped land. The former is great for a quick start, while the latter is the choice if you want to create everything from scratch.

You are presented with thumbnail images and descriptions of several appealing choices. These are all starting points for your creative vision, and you can always reshape your land later.

Click Continue to proceed.

Use the comparison details on the "Land Detail" page to decide whether you want a Full Region, Homestead, or Openspace. Click Choose under your selection to continue.

Note: You can only purchase a Homestead or Openspace region if you own or are also going to buy one or more full regions.
EXCEPTION: Educational institutions. See Information for educators.

On the "Name your land" page, type a name in the Create a Region Name field and click Check Availability. If your selected name is not taken, you can proceed.

Region Coordinates are automatically filled in; these coordinates are where your Region will be physically located on the World Map. If you'd prefer to override them, click [change], then click a map square that isn't crossed out in red. You can click the arrow buttons to look at different areas on the map. You can also search for another region to be near (for example, one that a friend or colleague owns).

Take a few seconds to fill out the brief survey at the bottom.

Click the Add to Cart button.

Once all details have been successfully verified, you can shop for more regions (same steps as above) or click Proceed to Checkout.

Note: You may have up to 10 items in your cart at once. Items don't stay in your cart forever; they stay in your cart until you or someone else buys them. A region is held as yours for 30 minutes after your last activity in the Land Store. If someone else buys it (or a neighboring region) after those 30 minutes have elapsed, it will appear in your cart as unavailable.

On the "Real Estate: Shopping Cart" page, click Place Order to confirm your purchase.

Note: Orders totaling more than US$10,000 can't be processed through the Land Store. If you're planning on buying more than US$10,000 worth of land, consider making multiple orders.

Delivery

Once your region purchase is complete, you receive an email with the details. A new region is generally delivered within 15 minutes. Occasional service updates may affect that time, so see the Second Life Grid Status Reports page if it's taking longer than expected.

Maturity ratings

New regions are delivered with a default maturity rating of Moderate. You can customize this using the Region/Estate tools:

Note: If your region is Moderate or Adult, only Residents, including yourself, who have set their maturity preference correctly will be able to access the region. Otherwise, if they try to enter, they'll be prompted either to set their preferences or be age-verified. See Maturity ratings for more information.

Must not be the name of a real life city (however "New York Island" or "Los Angeles City" are fine).

Cannot include SL, Linden, Linden Lab, Second Life etc in the name.

Must comply with General maturity rating guidelines.

Do not use the following as a Private Region name or estate name:

The name of another person to the extent that it may cause deception or confusion.

A name which violates any trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right.

A name which may mislead other users to believe you to be an employee of Linden Lab.

A name which Linden Lab deems in its discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive (obscenities in any language and however spelled; language that is racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory in nature).

Linden Lab reserves the right to change Private Region and estate names as we see fit.

Ordering adjacent regions

It is possible for two people to order adjacent Private Regions. The first person must:

Order a Private Region, then log into the Second Life website and click the Land Manager tab.

Click the My Regions tab.

Click the estate name of the estate for which you want to allow neighbors.

In the Allowed Neighbors column, click the edit link for a specific region.

Type the name of the Resident you want to allow as a neighbor, then click Add.

Initial customizations

Terrain shape: You can select from one of the six predesigned templates (including flat green land and open water).

Estate: You can assign your region to its own estate or to an estate you already own (with other Private Regions owned by you). Your Estate tools allow you to control settings for more than one region at once.

Customizations after purchase

As estate owner, you have access to the Region/Estate menu (under World > Place Profile). This provides you with several other options to customize your region:

Water height: You may specify the height sea level reaches on your region.

Terrain textures: You can use almost any texture for terrain. You can specify low-resolution textures as well as high-resolution textures and configure the elevation range at which they shift from one to another. There's more information on terrain textures in the Estate Tools article.

Fixed sun position: You can lock the sun at a specific time of day or night.

Terraform: You can lower or raise your terrain 100m from the height at which it was created. This is usually sufficient for nearly any type of terrain (including very dramatic cliffs).

Custom terrain files: You can save your terrain to a .RAW image file, edit it in a program such as Photoshop, and upload it back into Second Life to make wide-sweeping changes to your Region's terrain instantly.

Agent limit: You may control how many avatars can visit your Regon at the same time, anywhere from one to over one hundred.

Parcel activity: You can decide whether to allow renters to sell their parcels to other Residents, and whether they can subdivide the parcels they rent.

Teleport routing: You can use a telehub to force Residents to land at a specific location in your region, or you can allow direct teleporting so Residents can use landmarks or the world map teleport wherever they like.

Access: You can close your Private Region to everyone except your friends and colleagues, or you can open it to everyone in Second Life! You may also ban specific Residents by name if they cause trouble.

Renting a region for a special event

Got a plan for a large event and need a temporary place to have it? Linden Lab offers temporary Full Region rentals. Rental amounts are to be paid in full at the beginning of the rental period.

Rental rate

Land rental rates are different depending on whether you want to rent Private Regions or space on the mainland.

Private Regions are US$50 per region per day.

Mainland regions are L$4,000 per region per day.

Note: You must have a premium account to rent mainland regions. You can rent a Private Region with any account type.

Details

Reservations must be made 2 weeks in advance and are on a first-come first-served basis.

Residents must include a full description of the event when applying.

Minimal rental period is 3 days.

Residents are allowed to terraform the land and do not incur tier fees for temporary ownership of the land.

Residents cannot transfer the land during the rental period.

The original state of the regions will be saved immediately before the rental period. At the conclusion of the rental period, the regions will be restored.

More information

If you're interested in renting, please submit a Land and Region Issues ticket with the Region Request field set to Region Rental from our Support page.

Additional information you'll need to submit includes:

The number of regions you want

Rental start and end dates

Whether or not you need to be able to terraform the regions

A full description of your event

Invoicing for special orders

If you are an educator, non-profits organization, Resident under 18 years old or a business entities that requires a formal invoice, then place your order for private regions with the Special Island Order Form.

For all under 18 Resident, non-Linden Home, land orders (requires parental/guardian approval if under 18). Note: users under the age of 18 cannot purchase Linden Homes.

Any order requiring an invoice (payments by wire transfer, check or credit card). Specifically for business entities requiring a formal invoice/receipt or PO# type process. PO# not required at the time of ordering.

If your purchase does not fall into these categories, then place your order at the Land Store.

Where to get an invoice

Verification information

You need to provide the following information to use the invoicing option. Please read the guidelines below carefully. If your questions are not answered by this document, please submit a Support ticket to request explanation (include "Education" in the ticket summary).

Note: Second Life cannot provide invoicing option to Individuals, including educational professionals who wish to purchase a region for personal use or developers who wish to purchase a region for an institution.

Approval and Private Region delivery

Submitting an order does not obligate you to pay immediately; payment is made once the Private Region has been delivered and the invoice sent.

When you place the order, you receive a sales order confirmation. This is merely an order confirmation, not a notice of delivery.

Once you place the order, your order enters the approval queue.

Once the order is approved, you receive an approval email and your order is placed in the delivery queue.

After approval, delivery time under normal circumstances is 10-15 business days.

You cannot make a payment until you receive an invoice, which you then have 30 days to pay. Invoices for maintenance are emailed when the payment schedule is ready for renewal.

Warning: Late payment may result in the closure of your Private Region and the loss of any inventory it contains.

Payment Information

You may pay via check, credit card or wire transfer. We neither accept Paypal nor use funds from your Second Life account to pay for your invoiced Private Region order.

Note: Currently, VAT is not added to our invoiced orders, but we will inform you if this changes. Find out more about VAT and Second Life in Account balance.

Wire Transfer

See Account balance for more information on paying by wire transfer. You must pay your bank's wiring charges, which are added to your invoice total. Be sure to reference your invoice number in the wire details.